Through The Keyhole

It’s been a long time since I mentioned my knee. I injured it playing football in April 2003. I landed awkwardly and it felt as if my lower leg went one way while my upper leg went the other. It swelled up a treat, so I went to the local hospital the next day and waited around for five hours before being given a pair of crutches. I was told I’d probably torn a ligament and that I should rest and come back in two weeks.



Two weeks later, it was still slightly swollen and my doc said I’d either torn a ligament or torn some cartilage. I’d need keyhole surgery. I would also need physio. They’d be in touch.

A few weeks later, with my knee still swollen, I went to a private physio, who got rid of the swelling after just a couple of treatments – ultra sound and some other tingling electrical procedure. After a few weeks of private physio and a few months of doing things I hate like swimming, I was finally back to full fitness and started playing football again. Six months after the original injury, when I was back playing again, I got a call from the NHS physio telling me they were ready to see me. Useful.

Six games later, the knee had gone again. I was back at the end of the NHS waiting list.

I decided I should stop playing football until I had proper medical treatment. With no medical insurance and no money, I had to wait for the NHS. In January of 2004 they booked me in for an MRI scan – the earliest they could see me was August. Between that January and August I got the job out here. I flew out to live here 10 days after the MRI scan took place. The scan was inconclusive.

Before I left, I asked my doctor how long I would have to wait for an operation. He said about 18 months. I couldn’t stay on the waiting list while I wasn’t living in England, though. It seemed that I would have to rejoin the list when I finished my jaunt in Singapore.

My employers here pay for medical insurance but, of course, my condition was pre-existing, so they wouldn’t cover it. This year, though, I had to change insurers and, for some reason that I still can’t quite fathom or believe, they are quite happy to pay for the operation that I need, despite the fact that the injury occured three years before they took me on.

Not a moment too soon, either. The knee’s creaking a bit and my doc says I should get it done asap or I’d have to have a “whole knee done”.

The operation will involve taking a hamstring out of my leg and using it to create a new ligament in my knee, all via keyhole surgery. My doc showed me a video of the procedure, which I hadn’t wanted to see at all, but he seemed to laugh when I said I didn’t want to see it. The op takes place in about 3 weeks. Apparently, if all goes well, I should be playing football again in 6 months.

This is extremely good news for me. I was pretty fit when my injury first happened, but can't be bothered with playing sport unless it's a ball sport or something similar. Swimming and going to the gym, for example, leave me cold. Consequently, I'm probably 3 stone heavier than I was back when I was playing centre midfield once a week. By the time those 6 months of recuperation have passed I'll be 32. Still in my prime, eh?

I’m going to have a general anaesthetic, which is a relief, to be honest. As soon as the doc told me that I started to relax a bit. Sure, it might hurt a bit afterwards, but at least I won’t experience the drill entering the knee, or hear the sound of the surgical scissors snipping the hamstring.

Bizarrely, I’m actually much less nervous about this than I was about the dental treatment I had recently.

Please don’t leave any comments that might make me more nervous. Ignorance is bliss, and all that.